Asish MehtaDr
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 2: After targeting foreign tourists visiting the state, brown sugar peddlers are currently working to spread their network locally, aiming to hook ordinary folks with spare cash for some high fun, according to sources in the state police and excise departments.
Several areas in the capital city have figured high in the targeted local market of brown sugar peddlers in recent months, said sources, apparently with greater success than in other parts of the state. Youth from well-off families and students from top colleges in the city are among the primary targets of the drug peddlers. The use of the narcotic, often at high-end parties, is surrounded by extreme secrecy.
“Drug peddlers active in Bhubaneswar mostly buy brown sugar from other states and sell it here and other parts of Orissa. There are at least four brown sugar peddlers in Chakeisiani under Mancheswar police limits, three in Haldipadia under Laxmisagar police limits, six in old town area under Lingaraj police limits, two in Dumduma under Khandagiri police limits, and a few in Mali Sahi under Kharvelnagar police limits,” said a well-placed source.
The banned drug is reportedly smuggled into Orissa from states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal to be sold in cities like Puri, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Cuttack and Rourkela after further addition of addictives to it. Drug peddlers are reportedly selling very small quantities of brown sugar in the slums of Bhubaneswar at Rs150 to Rs 170 per packet.
According to Bhubaneswar excise police station inspector-in-charge Deba Prasad Das, brown sugar is routinely sold by drug peddlers to tourists flocking the state.
In the latest detection of brown sugar sale, the quick action team (QAT) of the Commissionerate Police had arrested two brown sugar peddlers from the Haldipadia slum in the city on July 13, 2015. The duo was arrested while coming to the city in an Indigo car in the wee hours. Working on a tipoff, the police team intercepted their speeding car near Sai Temple at Tankapani Road and nabbed them with 223 packets of brown sugar in their possession.
Earlier in 2014, excise officers had seized brown sugar worth over `50 lakh from a man who allegedly wanted to supply it to some foreign tourists in Puri. The drug peddler, Amulya Kumar Swain, was arrested with the contraband near Puri railway station. Excise officials had found that Swain procured the brown sugar from Rajasthan and foreign tourists were his prime targets as he used to mint money from selling to them.
“We are keeping a close watch on brown sugar peddlers in the city. We are also taking adequate measures to check the sale of brown sugar in the city, especially during the upcoming puja season,” Das said.
